India in 2013

Originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year. Presented as archival content. Learn more.

This article was originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year, an annual print publication that
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Looking back at 2013, one might view it either as the year in which India’s economy bottomed out and resumed its upward trend toward reaching an annual growth rate of about 8% or as the year in which the country lost its way en route to achieving great-power status. An economic slowdown, a persistent high inflation rate for food costs, and what was described in the Indian media as “policy paralysis” in the government combined to make the year a particularly difficult one for the country. Consequently, as India prepared for the 2014 round of parliamentary elections, a strong antigovernment sentiment was sweeping the country.

Indian children wait in line to receive a free midday meal at a government school in Hyderabad on …

Mahesh Kumar A./AP Images

Indian Pres. Pranab Mukherjee

B. Mathur—Reuters/AP Images

The Economy

After an unprecedented high annual growth-rate average of 8.7% in 2004–09, the Indian economy began to falter and slow down during the global financial crisis of 2008–09. The rate for 2013 hit its lowest level in several years. Official estimates placed growth at between 5% and 5.5%, whereas nonofficial forecasts suggested that it might be less than 5%. That level was able to be maintained owing to continued good performance in the services sector (about 7% growth) and moderately good performance in agriculture (close to 2%). Manufacturing growth, however, was the weakest recorded in years (about 1%).

Several factors might have contributed to the manufacturing slowdown. First, persistently high and escalating food costs and soaring energy prices diverted consumer demand away from manufactured goods to food and fuel. In addition, high interest rates increased the cost of borrowing capital. Furthermore, there was a sharp reduction in exports, mainly due to slower growth in Europe and other markets. The most important and widely cited factor, however, was the uncertainty arising from a series of contentious policy decisions. Delays in project clearances, partly because of protracted environmental assessments and land disputes, and infrastructure constraints, mainly energy shortages, combined to bring new investment largely to a halt. Indian investors simply were waiting for a new government to take charge in 2014. The result was a combination of high inflation and sluggish growth that contributed to stagflation.

With authorities suggesting that monetary policy could no longer tackle inflation without reform to fiscal policy, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram reduced government spending by drastically cutting the defense and welfare budgets. He said that he remained committed to bringing the fiscal-deficit ratio down to below 5%.

On the external side, the current-account deficit was pushed in late 2012 to an all-time high of almost 7% of national income, owing to such factors as a delay in the adjustment of the rupee’s exchange rate to a reduction in export growth, cutbacks in foreign capital inflows, and higher import bills. A subsequent sharp depreciation of the rupee, marked by an overcorrection amid concerns that the U.S. might end its “quantitative easing” policy (economic stimulation through the purchase of bonds), also contributed to an environment of uncertainty. Against that backdrop Raghuram Rajan, a former chief economist at the IMF, was appointed governor of the Reserve Bank of India, a move that helped restore some stability to currency markets.

Domestic Politics

A series of corruption scandals, including one that involved the allocation of coal-mining rights to private companies and implicated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, continued to put the government on the defensive in 2013, and it created an opening for the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to revive its electoral fortunes. The party, after a bitter internal power struggle, chose Narendra Modi, the BJP’s leader and chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, as its candidate for prime minister in the 2014 elections. Modi was viewed as a divisive figure for having failed to protect the lives of hundreds of Muslims killed in sectarian violence in Gujarat in 2002, but he was able to unite his party and offer stiff competition to the ruling Indian National Congress (Congress Party). The BJP won three of the five state elections in December—Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan—and made a strong showing in Delhi. The victories further reinforced Modi’s control over his party and made him a formidable challenger in 2014.

Public opinion polls consistently placed Modi well ahead of his nearest potential rival, Rahul Gandhi, son of Congress Party Pres. Sonia Gandhi. The younger Gandhi had not been declared the party’s candidate for prime minister by year’s end, but he was widely viewed as the only credible option available to the beleaguered Congress. Apart from the challenge of anti-incumbency—a natural problem for a party that had been in government for a decade and was dealing with persistent economic woes such as high food costs—Congress was hobbled by Sonia Gandhi’s deteriorating health and by an intraparty revolt in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, a Congress bastion in the 2004 and 2009 national elections. The party was split there over the proposed division of the state to form the new state of Telangana.

Foreign Policy

Prime Minister Singh, preoccupied with domestic political and economic challenges, was unable to undertake any major new foreign policy initiatives in 2013. He did, however, renew his outreach to Japan, India’s increasingly important strategic partner. India sought Japanese investment and technology. In turn, Japan hoped that India would be an ally willing to stand up to the growing power of China in Asia. On a visit to Tokyo in May, Singh reiterated India’s commitment to building a strategic partnership with Japan based on shared values and national security concerns. Japan responded warmly, with the Japanese emperor and empress (Akihito and Michiko) making a historic visit to India in late 2013 and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scheduled to arrive in late January 2014 and participate in India’s annual Republic Day observance in Delhi.

Late in the year Singh traveled to the U.S., Russia, and China for his last summit-level meetings with the leaders of those countries. Singh met in late September in New York City with Nawaz Sharif, the new prime minister of Pakistan, but the encounter took place against a backdrop of skirmishes between the two countries in the disputed Kashmir region. In November Singh sent the minister of external affairs in his place to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka to demonstrate India’s disapproval of that country’s treatment of its minority Tamil population.

Singh, nearing the end of his term, outlined his “five principles” of Indian foreign policy at an annual conference of Indian ambassadors and high commissioners in early November. These were: (1) India’s relations with both major powers and its Asian neighbours were to be defined by its “developmental priorities,” and the “single most important objective of Indian foreign policy [was] to create a global environment conducive to the well-being” of the Indian people. (2) “Greater integration with the world economy” was beneficial to India. (3) India needed “stable, long term and mutually beneficial relations with all major powers” and would work with the “international community to create a global economic and security environment beneficial to all nations.” (4) India would help build stronger regional institutions to ensure greater cooperation and connectivity in South Asia. (5) Apart from India’s “interests,” its “values”—represented by “India’s experiment of pursuing economic development within the framework of a plural, secular and liberal democracy”—would define Indian foreign policy.